Shimmering Shadows
by Adwen
Summary: Tsuna died. Unable to move on, he continued to haunt Namimori. At first, no one seemed to even notice the difference, then somehow he started making friends. If only they had met while he was still alive…. But some things are irreversible. …Right? AU
1. Evening Skies

I don't own Katekyo Hitman Reborn. It is the property of Akira Amano, and is not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only. The original idea for this fan fiction came from Kyogre.

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><p>Tsuna ran. Tsuna ran as fast as possible and then some. His muscles were aching and his lungs burned with every gasping breath he took but he couldn't stop. Not when the bullies were still chasing him.<p>

The rain was falling down all around him, pounding against the ground in a furious beat—like war drums before a battle. The streets were abandoned, everybody else being smart enough to find shelter by now.

He was drenched and the bullies were drenched, but even though they should have stopped chasing him by now, Tsuna had been stupid and insulted them and now they weren't going to let a bit of rain stop them from getting their revenge.

Run, run, run, and run some more until the bullies lost interest and went home. He just had to make sure he wasn't caught before then. It would almost be monotonous if Tsuna wasn't putting every last bit of energy he had into not slipping on all the puddles.

He turned the corner and lost his footing for a moment before grabbing the wall and pushing himself back on track.

There! The complex in front of him was abandoned (supposedly it had been meant to be apartment complex but after Kokuyo Land went bankrupt lots of other businesses fell as well and the construction stopped) and the only people who went inside now used it as a test of courage that was said to be incredibly scary.

He had never participated, too scared of all the horror stories he heard, but the bullies had gone before and were utterly terrified of it—if the stories could be believed that is. They might be too scared to follow him and Tsuna was desperate enough to try hiding there if it meant a chance to rest.

Tsuna pushed himself over the soaked, rusted gates and ran toward the only building in sight. The doors were also rusted but still open from all the people who came here before and he thought he would manage to squeeze through. He looked behind him when he heard cursing and almost tripped when he saw them climbing over the gates. They had followed him!

He ran through the door and stopped at the lobby panting for breath. It was dark, so very dark, and the small light that came from the windows only made it seem more macabre. Tsuna would have whimpered if he wasn't out of breath. Why had he thought this would be a good idea again?

The splashing of feet on water snapped him out of his thoughts and Tsuna looked around him, scrutinizing all the possible escape routes he had. All the floors above him were out. He didn't have the energy to climb the stairs; which narrowed it down to this floor.

Tsuna ran to the first room he saw and desperately tried to open it but it was locked; all the others were most likely locked as well but it wasn't like Tsuna could go back anymore so he ran through the long corridor between rows of doors.

After several seconds it grew almost too dark to see anything and all Tsuna could hear was the sound of his uncontrolled breath, the beating of his heart, and the shoes of the bullies as they searched for him.

He ran.

A slightly brighter section of floor caught his eye and Tsuna stopped and scanned the walls for where it came from. There was a small window, too small and high for him to climb through, and under it, so dark in the dim lighting he almost didn't see it, there was a door. Tsuna almost cried in relief as he pushed the door open and ran outside where the rain was still striking the ground furiously.

There was a smaller building on this side of the complex —some kind of shed from what he could see. Tsuna ran inside and quickly pulled the doors shut before collapsing on the floor. He couldn't hear the bullies anymore but he was too exhausted to do anything but sit there.

Eventually, he remembered that he had promised himself to help his mother with dinner as a way to apologize for their fight this morning and he pushed himself to his feet. His muscles ached and he had to support himself with the wall of the shed in order to stand but he _could_ stand and that was better than he expected.

Slowly, one foot came in front of the other and then the opposite foot repeated the movement. Tsuna dragged himself to the door and stood on throbbing muscles before pushing on the door. It didn't budge. He pushed again, harder this time, but it had no more effect than the first time and now—now Tsuna really felt like crying. Please, please,_ please_ don't tell him that he'd locked himself in this dim, damp, and dirty little shed.

Push. No effect. Push harder once again. No effect. Tsuna rested his forehead against the door as hot, wet tears ran down his checks. Push, push, _push_. No change, the door was still closed.

Tsuna sobbed before bracing his feet against the floor and pushing with all the strength he had left. The door didn't move but Tsuna slipped on a puddle and lost his footing.

As the floor rushed to meet him Tsuna knew that he was going to die. His muscles didn't have the energy to brace his body for the impact and at this angle he would either snap his neck or at least hit his head hard enough to crack it.

For a moment, Tsuna remembered all the things he didn't do. He never confessed his feelings to Kyoko, he never stood up for himself, he would always be Dame-Tsuna to everybody and he would never be able to apologize to his mother now. For a moment, Tsuna wanted to live.

And then the moment was gone and Tsuna closed his eyes. What good would it do if he lived? He still wouldn't have the courage to confess or to stand up for himself. He would never be anything but Dame to everybody and almost dying wouldn't change that.

…He did wish he had apologized to his mother though.

Tsuna felt warm for a second before icy numbness flooded his being.

There was no sudden darkness because his eyes were already closed.

* * *

><p>When he opened his eyes again he was in front of his house.<p>

Tsuna blinked, looked around him, and turned around so he could see his surroundings properly. This was definitely his house, and his neighborhood, and it was still raining but…Hadn't he been in the abandoned complex? And hadn't he _died!_

Was—was that just all a weird dream?! Had he fallen asleep on his front porch or something and dreamed that he— Tsuna shook his head and tried to stop the panicked scream that was growing in his chest. And then he tripped and fell backwards. Again.

"Gah!"

Tsuna gaped at his ceiling from where he was laying on the ground and stared at it in what might have been incomprehension but was probably horror. Then, he craned his neck to look at the rest of his body...which he could only see a quarter of because the door was in the way.

He scrambled to sit up and watched as the rest of his body came through the door. As in literally through the door because he wasn't corporeal anymore! Even if it didn't seem like it since his body wasn't see-through he—he was a ghost!

"HIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

And there was that panicked scream.

"Tsu-kun are you ho…Tsuna, what are you doing sitting on the floor?"

His head whipped over to look at Nana who was peering worriedly at him from the doorway. 'Mom…this is my chance to apologize.' He hurried to stand up and kept staring at her before bowing his head.

"…I'm really sorry for fighting with you today mom… I didn't mean anything that I said and…sorry."

Nana blinked at him before smiling, "Ara, that? Don't worry about that, it's no problem. Dinner is ready; do you want to come eat?"

Tsuna lifted his head to stare at her and a warm feeling gripped his heart. He opening his mouth to say yes when a thought struck him, could he even eat anything anymore? Could he even touch things for that matter?

"Ah…I'm not hungry…In fact I'm a bit tired, think I'll go to sleep now."

"Hmm, OK, good night."

Tsuna gazed at the now empty doorway and felt the warm feeling stretch throughout his body; it was his first clue that something was wrong. The second clue was that his body was beginning to disappear.

Tsuna brought his hands up and stared at the wall from behind them. This—he hadn't been see through before so why was he disappearing now?!

But…hadn't he just apologized to his mother? That was his only regret so maybe…maybe now that he didn't regret anything…was he going to move on?

He once again closed his eyes and felt a small smile tug at his lips. At least he managed to apologize. That nice, strange, and warm feeling enveloped his body and he felt himself surrounded by it as everything else drifted away.

Unseen, a small orange flame flickered and disappeared from the entrance.

* * *

><p>The next morning Nana came up to Tsuna's bedroom and knocked on the door.<p>

"Tsuna! Time to wake up and go to school!"

She frowned when she got no response. "Tsuna!" she called again and wiggled the door handle in warning but instead opened the door.

Nana blinked in confusion at Tsuna's empty bedroom. Looking around she realized that the bed was already made and that his schoolbag was missing. Shaking her head she left the room and closed the door behind her.

"Did he leave already? What a troublesome son, not even leaving a note. I hope he at least ate breakfast."

Several miles away and some minutes later, a man called out to his class, "Sawada." When no response was given he lowered his list and searched for an empty seat. He wasn't surprised when he found it and simply sighed while marking Sawada Tsunayoshi as absent.

As for Tsuna, he thought he was floating, or at least that was what he thought it felt like. But how can you feel when you're barely aware of anything? All that he knew was that he was warm. Warm and safe and it felt like nothing bad could ever touch him.

He didn't know if he even had a body here—wherever here was. Peripherally he was aware that he had died. It was a strange feeling and for a while he had alternated between denial, anger at the bullies, and sadness. But then the Warmth—as he had taken to call it in his more lucid moments— came and chased all those feelings away.

He gave the equivalent of a content sigh as the Warmth shifted once again, holding him in a protective embrace.

Life went on and no one but Tsuna realized that something wasn't right, and he didn't particularly care that something "wasn't right."

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><p>Several days later—not that he knew it at the time—Tsuna frowned and for the first time since arriving (or however he got here) in the Warmth he opened his eyes. Orange stared back and for a while Tsuna forgot what it was that had jostled him from his sleep in the first place—too busy taking in where he was.<p>

A seemingly never-ending cloudless evening sky—lit up in a beautiful arrangement of different shades of orange— stretched above him. Underneath him, Tsuna was amazed to find the source of the Warmth: A strange covering that met the sky in all horizons. Tsuna would have thought it grass if it weren't for the color — a pale orange— that, he realized as he brought one hand up— clinging orange following its path— wasn't grass but fire. It was a weak looking orange fire that wasn't burning his hand at all.

For a while Tsuna did nothing but stare at the flame on his hand from where he was lying down. Then that same sensation (_something was wrongwrongwrong_) which had been pushed to the back of his mind in his amazement returned—stronger this time.

He frowned as he tried to identify where the feeling was coming from. Around him, the orange fire shifted erratically and began to grow in size. The last thing Tsuna saw of the field before he was forced to close his eyes or risk being blinded was the flames—the same color as the sky, now that he thought about it— rising and blending in with the sky.

The next thing he knew, he was standing in his kitchen watching his mother chop vegetables. He looked around him before his eyes settled on Nana's form. Something wasn't right with her, he decided. And that wasn't good at all.

"Mom, are you all right?"

Nana gave a screech and twisted to look behind her. When her eyes landed on him she huffed, "Tsu-kun , don't scare me like that! Honestly, I didn't hear you at all." Then, she looked him over for several moments before nodding to herself and beaming at him.

"Tsuna, you shouldn't disappear for days like that. I'm glad you're okay."

"Ah, s—sorry mom."

Tsuna frowned, how could he have forgotten that his mom would be all alone now? If it wasn't because he was a ghost then she would be stuck in this lonely house with no one else because his dumb dad was never home! There wasn't many people, or things, Tsuna was grateful to but right now he thanked the Warmth (who he was sure had _something_ to do with him being a ghost) with everything he had for not making him leave his mom alone.

"It's okay, I'm making lunch now, are you hungry?"

"OH, no, I uh, ate already, sorry." And sorry he was— the food smelled delicious.

"Ok!"

As Nana turned around and started chopping the vegetables again with a renewed vigor, Tsuna felt the Warmth begin to close in on him again. With a last look at his Mom—who was happily humming— and a mournful glance at the food he let the orange flames of the Warmth engulf him and disappeared from the kitchen.

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><p>Life went on. Tsuna returned once again to the field of orange flames and quickly fell into an exhausted asleep.<p>

Days later, he was once again woken up by that creeping feeling and reappeared behind a worried Nana. He never stayed long but she was always happy after his appearances and didn't seem to notice that anything was wrong. Tsuna himself was just glad that she wasn't completely alone.

Life went on. The teachers at school assumed that Tsuna was once again on one of his long skipping periods and after a week didn't even bother calling his name. They would know when he was back anyway.

Life went on and nobody noticed anything abnormal had happened.

Life went on…and then Yamamoto Takeshi tried to commit suicide.

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><p>Authors note:<p>

This is the un-betaed quasi-draft based on another of Kyogre's brilliant ideas. I'm not very happy with how it is right now, which is the reason for the "quasi-draft" label. I'll probably fix it up once I get more inspiration.

This is what took my inspiration from Flower Shop Blues for the last couple of days and I have a vague idea of how I want it to turn out, but updates will be slow since I'm not that inspired atm.

So what do you think? Is it awful? Should I re-write it? Should I take it down or is it acceptable?


	2. Rainy Skies

_I do not own KHR!_

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><p>Tsuna had been beginning to fade after one of his conversations with Nana when he felt <em>it<em>. _It_ was a strange feeling, like an itch that was incredibly annoying but would probably go away if left untouched.

It was different than the sensation he felt whenever his mom was feeling sad— _that_ felt more like eating rotten food; food which after he tasted it one time he never wanted to taste again, but he still had to eat it against his will and it made Tsuna hate it with all his being. No, this feeling was different.

Something was going to happen. Something _bad_ was going to happen. Something which Tsuna would want to desperately avoid happening but that wouldn't really affect him that much if it _did_ happen. It was by far the strangest sensation he had ever felt—partly because he had no idea how he deduced so much from an itch-like sensation.

He looked in the direction in which he felt the feeling coming from. Then, the world unexpectedly exploded in flashes of color and he stumbled as white spots danced in his eyes.

When his vision finally cleared, he found himself kneeling on the ground in a place that _definitely_ wasn't his living room. It was a roof. It was the _Nanimori Middle School_ roof—just what was he doing here?!

The shuffling of feet had him looking up and meeting the equally surprised brown eyes of Yamamoto Takeshi. After staring at each other for a minute Tsuna finally took in the rest of the details of the situation.

Yamamoto had a cast on. He was also standing on the other side of the rusted old fence surrounding the roof. This, in addition the strangely morose air surrounding the baseball player, told Tsuna that he was the one causing his feeling (or at least he had _something_ to do with it).

"Y-Yamamoto-san, w-what are you doing?…Don't you know that the fence is really old and might fall apart? If you stand there you might fall and die!" He shouted.

Yamamoto blinked at him before a small bitter smile appeared on his face. It looked wholly out of place.

"That's the point Tsuna. After the Baseball God threw me away I have nothing left."

"What?! ...Are—are you planning to- _to die_?!"

"If you came to stop me it's no use. You should be able to understand my feelings."

"Huh?"

"For someone that's called Dame-Tsuna all the time, you can understand the feeling of preparing to die over failing at everything, right?"

"Huh...I, um…No…you and I are different so…"

Tsuna immediately knew it was the wrong thing to say when Yamamoto's eyes narrowed and cooled dangerously.

"How arrogant of you, do you think that just because you're skipping recently that it makes you cooler and better as opposed to me."

"Wha?! N-NO, THAT'S WRONG! It's because I'm no good! Unlike you, I've never put effort into one single thing, so you saying that you're so frustrated that you want to die, or that you want to die because of failure…Unlike you, I've never had those kinds of intense thoughts.

In fact, I'm a pathetic person who would still have regrets when dying. I'd think that it's a waste to die from something like this. Especially you Yamamoto-san, you're a nice person and can easily make friends and many people would miss you…I think it'd be a complete waste if you wanted to die like that...So, I can't understand your feelings."

It was only after he yelled this that Tsuna noticed that he had clenched his fists and shut his eyes. When he opened them, Yamamoto was staring at him with wide eyes that didn't quite manage to hide his surprise.

Then Tsuna felt the Warmth beginning to flood his being. His eyes widened before he closed them and turned around, running for the door. "Later!"

He felt rather than saw Yamamoto give a jerk and call out, "Wait, Tsuna—"

He felt the alien sensation of fingers attempting to grab his shirt but instead sliding through it as if the shirt was made of air.

He twisted his head to look behind him for a moment when heard a crash and saw Yamamoto sprawled on top of the broken remains of a section of the fence before he ran through the door and faded in a flash of orange.

One minute later, a group of students crashed through the door and saw Yamamoto beginning to pull himself from the wreckage.

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><p>There was something pulling on him. A small tugging sensation that Tsuna would have never noticed if he hadn't put a lot of effort into noticing the 'feelings' that came to him.<p>

It wasn't the first time it had happened, and it always vanished after a while but Tsuna was curious about where it was coming from. He tried to figure out where it was originating from without leaving the Warmth, but like always when he tried to do this, all he got was a vague impression before the orange flames rose and brought him to the point of origin.

When he reappeared, he was on an almost empty street—the only other person on it being Yamamoto. Said person suddenly jerked when Tsuna laid eyes on him and turned around, eyes widening when they fell on Tsuna before breaking out in a grin.

"Tsuna!"

Tsuna shifted slightly and waved, "H-hello Yamamoto-san…you, uh, look well."

Yamamoto's smile wavered for a moment and he winced at the reminder of what he attempted to do last week.

"Thanks, that reminds me…Are you busy right now?"

"Eh? No…"

Yamamoto gave a relieved smile and said, "That's great, I really wanted to thank you for talking me out of…you know…but didn't know where to find you. I have no idea what I was thinking; nothing good comes from my idiocy." Then he bowed, "Thank You!"

Tsuna flailed for a moment exclaiming, "You don't have to bow! I just did what anybody would have done if they were in my place! But still, I'm glad that you didn't kill yourself."

Yamamoto shook his head smiled at him. "'Anybody' wouldn't have done the same thing if they were in your place. You're a really amazing person, Tsuna!"

He lowered his head for a moment and said, "But, I don't think you get how grateful I am. I actually didn't get how grateful I was either until I got home that day. They called my dad you know, and let him know what happened. When I got home he just hugged me and started crying. I felt horrible. Imagining how he would have been if I had jumped…"

As Yamamoto trailed off Tsuna smiled sadly at him, "Of course he would be sad. I told you, Yamamoto-san is a really nice person, lots of people would miss you if you died, unlike me…" He muttered quietly.

Not quietly enough though, if Yamamoto's "Huh? What did you say?" was anything to go by.

"N-nothing…"

"Oh, Ok," 'how trusting -_-l', "Say, can I still call you Tsuna?"

"Eh? Why do you ask?"

Yamamoto strached the back of his head, "Well, I know you said to call you "Tsuna" to the entire class before, but then almost everybody added the "Dame" part —which isn't true at all by the way and you shouldn't think it is— so I wondered if maybe you'd be happier if I called you Tsuna-san or Tsunayoshi-san or even Sawada-san," he shrugged and turned expectant eyes on Tsuna, "so can I still call you Tsuna?"

There was a warm feeling in his chest that had nothing to do with the Warmth. His eyes were burning at the edges and Yamamoto surged forward and exclaimed, "Are you alright?!"

Tsuna smiled at him and rubbed his eyes, "Y-yeah, I-I just got something in my eye…and…call me Tsuna, it's much better than being called 'Sawada-san'"

Yamamoto grinned, looking the happiest Tsuna had ever seen him, and said, "Then you can call me Takeshi."

Yamamoto was kind enough to not mention that people didn't begin sniffling several moments after 'they got something in their eyes'.

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><p>Tsuna appeared behind Yamamoto again (said person spent most of their last meeting correcting him every time he called him Yamamoto until Tsuna gave in and called him Takeshi but inside his mind it was still weird referring to him as 'Takeshi') as the baseball player was walking to school.<p>

He wasn't exactly sure why the taller teen kept calling or thinking of him or whatever he did to create that tugging sensation Tsuna felt before appearing behind him but after the first couple of meetings Tsuna had grown used to it. It helped that was nice talking to someone that wasn't his mom.

He wasn't surprised when all it took to get Yamamoto's attention was to keep his eyes on his back for several seconds. 'His instincts are really good'

As Takeshi jumped and turned around he exclaimed, "Wha—Tsuna! Man, you're really good at sneaking up on people, it's like you're a ghost! Hahaha!"

'I _am_ a ghost…'

"Anyway, you have your school uniform on, are you coming back to school?"

"Huh? Oh no, I just umm…put it on automatically?" Tsuna trailed off uncertainly. It wasn't that he had actually put on his school uniform, but it was the clothes Tsuna had died in and he always appeared in them, he wasn't even sure if he _could _change them, not with how he wasn't able to touch anything that wasn't the ground (Though really, he didn't have many chances to test that one out).

"Hmm, Ok."

After walking in a content silence, Yamamoto bit his lip and said, "Hey Tsuna, we're friends now right?"

"Ah? I think so…" Or had Tsuna misinterpreted something…

Yamamoto nodded and turned to look at him with a serious face.

"Then don't say that nobody would miss you if you died."

Huh? "What?"

"The first time we talked I think you muttered about how people would miss me if I died "unlike you" I'm not sure if you did say that or not but, we're friends, and even if we weren't you saved my life. I'd definitely notice if you died so don't go around saying things like that because they aren't true!"

Tsuna stared speechlessly at him and then gave a small bitter smile. Tears began forming in his eyes and Tsuna did nothing to stop them.

"Oi wait! Don't cry! Ah, what did I do?"

So this was what having a friend was like. How nice.

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><p>Tsuna frowned at the weird…thing that had suddenly appeared in his…wherever this was—he still wasn't sure about that (his theories included heaven, his mindscape (as he had read in a manga somewhere), or somewhere outside of time and space (something he <em>also<em> got from manga)).

He took several hesitant steps toward it and when it didn't react he took several slightly more confident steps until he was standing a few feet away from it.

He had no idea what made this place change suddenly. The last thing he remembered was falling into a tired sleep after spending time with Yamamoto (or Takeshi, as the other teen insisted he call him) and hehad done _that_ before with nothing changing, so he didn't think it was what caused the change.

Tsuna slowly reached out and quickly retracted his hand when a strange blue…thing (column? Line? Unidentified non-flying object?)—the same color as the rest of the weird whatever-it-was—jumped out from the rest of itand tried to follow his hand. The smaller blue object quickly returned to the larger blue after it didn't find his hand.

Tsuna stared at the _thing_ feeling confused. While the place where the Warmth resided couldn't be called _normal_ by anyone's standards, it had a pattern that Tsuna had grown used to. The floor was made of warm, pale orange flames—the same color as the evening sky above; which was the only other thing here. That was all there was to it. It was incredibly simple yet breathtakingly beautiful at the same time.

Now something had changed the landscape and Tsuna had no idea what to do about it. Standing in front of him, connecting the sky and the flames, there was a large blue column that had a tendency to move erratically and then stay still.

When Tsuna first spotted it he thought it looked a bit like rain—that is, if rain didn't come from clouds and flowed from the ground up. Because that is what it did: It came from the orange flames and went upward until it touched the sky where it dispersed.

Standing this close, he noticed that it wasn't water but instead…flames; blue flames that looked like upside-down rain…he wasn't quite sure what to do about this development. With a last wary glance at the unmoving blue flames he walked as far from them as possible and went back to his second favorite pastime since arriving here (his first being playing around with the flames): sleeping.

The last thing he thought about was that the Warmth had a fire motif. How amusing, was it because flames were warm?

* * *

><p>Takeshi considered himself fairly observant. That was why, he told himself, he was easily able to see through Tsuna's attempts to play ninja.<p>

He wasn't exactly sure _when_ he realized Tsuna was playing ninja, but he thought it might have been on their second meeting— not counting the Roof Incident. Or maybe it had been right from the start when Tsuna vanished into thin air after talking Takeshi down from suicide.

Either way, Takeshi was fully aware that Tsuna was playing ninja. And because he wanted to be a good friend, he wasn't going to mention that he knew.

(The one time he _did_ mention how quietly Tsuna came and went, Tsuna had gone pale and morose and—this was supposed to be Takeshi's _friend_, Takeshi's maybe BEST friend and he was never going to mention it again if it meant Tsuna (sweet, kind and somewhat shy Tsuna, who was the best friend anyone could ask for and he'd use his dad's best glare on anyone who said otherwise) wouldn't look so sad)

To be fair on Tsuna, he was very good at being a ninja. At first, Takeshi only realized that Tsuna was standing right behind him after a few seconds. Then something changed. He wasn't sure if he had slowly developed a sixth-sense of sorts (like those they described in the action manga that Takeshi used to read) for when someone was going to appear behind him, but soon he was able to tell when Tsuna would appear around a second or so before he _did_ appear.

The feeling itself was what had him confused. In all the stories he vaguely remembered reading, that sixth sense had always been described as a shock that suddenly had all your senses ready for a fight. But this feeling wasn't anything like it.

Right before Tsuna appeared, Takeshi felt warm and safe. He felt like he did when he came home from a long day at school and his dad had a plate of sushi and a smile waiting for him.

It felt nice.

Takeshi didn't feel in danger or threatened, so maybe it was a "My friend is coming" sixth sense? But the feeling only disappeared when Tsuna left so maybe it was simply a "My friend is with me" sense.

Takeshi nodded at his explanation of the strange feeling and went back to eating his lunch, something which was rather annoying to do with only one good arm.

Still, while he was happy that he managed to identify that sensation, now he really wished Tsuna was here. Eating alone wasn't very fun. And while he _could _go and eat with other people again, it didn't feel…nice anymore. Not since the Roof Incident.

Now everybody treated him like one wrong word was going to set him off on another quest to go kill himself. Conversations stopped whenever he passed by, and he knew that the school gossip mill was still afloat with trying to find who was responsible for talking him out of suicide.

Takeshi of course, said nothing when asked. While he hadn't really talked or interacted with Tsuna before the Roof Incident he knew that Tsuna wouldn't like being the object of everybody's attention once he decided to come back to school. Or maybe he would have liked it, if he had come back around a week or so ago, before all the rumors turned to "Yamamoto doesn't like whoever saved him so he doesn't say who it is and if Yamamoto doesn't like him/her, then he/she must be a REALLY BAD person if Yamamoto still hates him/her after they saved his life."

Not to mention that Tsuna was playing ninja, and everybody knew that ninja's didn't like having their identity revealed so Takeshi wasn't going about to start blabbing it to everybody.

(Besides, what happened on the roof was personal to him and the only person who had a right to ask him what happened (as far as he was concerned) was his dad.)

Takeshi blinked for a moment before he grinned as that nice sensation burst from his chest. He wasn't surprised when he turned around and caught sight of orange flames flickering out of existence and saw Tsuna looking around with a curious expression on his face.

That was another thing. Now that he actually knew when Tsuna was coming, it wasn't long before he caught sight of the orange flames which always surrounded Tsuna for a moment. He wasn't sure what was their purpose (he thought they might be a smoke screen made of fire, which was a pun in itself) or why Tsuna chose _orange_ of all colors to hide him when playing ninja (maybe he took inspiration from _Naruto_? Or maybe he just liked orange) but it wasn't like Takeshi was an expert on ninjas so he didn't say anything.

"Yo Tsuna!" he said. Said person startled and turned to look at him. Then a small, happy smile grew on his lips.

"Hello Yama—Takeshi-san" Tsuna said, changing his name mid-sentence at Takeshi's frown. Takeshi mock-huffed and said, "It's just Takeshi, Tsuna. Not Takeshi-san. You're too polite."

"Ah, sorry?"

"You don't have to apologize, but we're friends so call me Takeshi. Anyway, my dad made sushi, do you want some?"

"Oh, no thanks, I already ate…"

Takeshi leaned back as he talked with Tsuna. He really liked spending time with his friend. Now he just had to make sure he didn't let on he knew about the ninja game.

If only Takeshi could erase his memory of all those times Tsuna appeared suddenly or that one time when Takeshi's fingers just passed through him (maybe Takeshi only _thought_ his fingers passed through him but it really was just Tsuna moving rapidly), then he'd be happy because that way nobody would know about Tsuna's new ninja identity.

But Takeshi was good at fooling others when he wanted to be, so maybe…maybe he could fool himself too?

* * *

><p>Authors note:<p>

So, I added all the changes I made to this chapter and I think this is the final result (for now). I'm not happy _at all_ with how unsmooth the transitions are from scene to scene but I don't really know what to do to fix them up. Constructive criticism is much appreciated in this instance.

I'm not sure if I characterized Yamamoto correctly. To me he's such a complex character that I don't think I did him justice. Also, since I don't think I …showed it correctly, that last line is an allusion to the fact that Yamamoto is already fooling himself.

Now, normally I wouldn't answer this here since I consider author's notes to be no place for responses to reviews (that is what the PM system is for in my opinion) so I'll take this down when I post the 3rd chapter. So even though it wasn't a contest I'd like Snowyh2o to know that your answer for what you thought the "Flame place" was is around 70% correct. The Warmth is actually his flames while the sensation is his Hyper Intuition. Also, I've never once said that Tsuna isn't dead. Then again, I've never said he's dead either, and you don't have much info beyond Tsuna's POV since nobody has gone to check on his body… Hmm, did I write Tsuna as an unreliable narrator of sorts? Sweet!


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